List of records is blank

[Dave The Brain]

Hi All!

I was doing a mailmerge at work yesterday to produce invoices with
Word 2003. It should have been a simple job. I had the Access Query
'invoices 2004' (part of an Access 97 database now saved as Access
2000) all set up with the right fields. I opened the query and
confirmed it worked. The data was listed ok and in the right order.

I closed the database then opened Word. I set up a page using the
mail merge wizard. I selected letters. I selected the query 'invoices
2004' as the data source. Then I clicked on mail merge recipients and
it displayed... nothing!

Puzzled I did the merge without clicking on mail merge recipients.
The results all came out with blank fields.

I was starting to sweat a bit by this point as the invoices needed
doing. I completely redid the query. I completely retyped the Word
letter. I ran it all again. I got exact;ly the same result. The
fields simply refused to show up on the merge. They showed on the
query ok. The data source for the merge was the right query. But
nothing listed in the mail merge recipients. Other mail merges with
other query/Word combinations produced results but this one didn't

In something of a panic I struck on the idea of producing an Excel
sheet from the query. I then altered the mail merge data source to
this Excel. Surprise, the data showed up immediately. I went with
what I could get and produced the invoices that way.

Can anyone tell me why the data did not appear on the mail merge
recipients list at all? Is this a fault in Word/Access or something I
can address?

Any guidance would be appreciated.

Cheers
David F-B

 

[Cindy M -WordMVP-]

Hi Dave,

I'm guessing this is due to trying to use an OLE DB connection to an
Access 2000 datasource, and that the query may use wildcards such as *
or ? to select records?

Try activating "Confirm conversions on open" in Tools/Options/General,
select the database again, and this time choose "ODBC" as the connection
method. In order to see the queries, in the dialog box that follows,
click "Options" then activate "Views". Choose your query and you should
see the records.

I was doing a mailmerge at work yesterday to produce invoices with
Word 2003. It should have been a simple job. I had the Access Query
'invoices 2004' (part of an Access 97 database now saved as Access
2000) all set up with the right fields. I opened the query and
confirmed it worked. The data was listed ok and in the right order.

I closed the database then opened Word. I set up a page using the
mail merge wizard. I selected letters. I selected the query 'invoices
2004' as the data source. Then I clicked on mail merge recipients and
it displayed... nothing!

Puzzled I did the merge without clicking on mail merge recipients.
The results all came out with blank fields.

Cindy Meister
INTER-Solutions, Switzerland
http://homepage.swissonline.ch/cindymeister (last update Jun 8 2004)
http://www.word.mvps.org

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[Dave The Brain]

Yep, that cracked it. Many thanks!

So, the important thing is to specify ODBC as the connection. OK.

Thanks
David